How to Convince Your Friends to Work Out with You

I’m a huge advocate for working out with a partner. When you buddy up with a friend, there are a ton of benefits you can enjoy, especially being able to keep each other motivated. I’m especially lucky in this area because my girlfriend, Breeze is as driven as I am about staying active and pushing to always improve performance.

Still, you don’t just have to be lucky to get someone to work out with you. As long as you’ve got friends, the odds are that you have a potential workout partner you just don’t happen to know about yet. Even if your friends are more into lifting snacks than dumbbells, there might still be some great potential there. You just need to know how to do a bit of finessing to get your buddy interested and then help each other out from then on.

Don’t know how to finesse? Here are some tips to get you started:

• Strategic compliments – A few small compliments can go a long way to get your buddy to see things your way. I don’t mean that you should start oozing with flattery. That’s more likely to get you to lose a friend than to gain a workout partner. But if you acknowledge the hard work he’s been putting into his own workouts, the progress he’s made toward his goal, the weight he’s lost or just the pride you have in his decision not to give up, it can lay the groundwork for working together.
• Set goals together – When you’re both working together toward similar goals, you’ll be more inclined to find opportunities to work together to reach it.
• Compete – A bit of friendly competition can help you both to overcome a motivational slump. Come up with a prize to act as your incentive and you’ll both be driven to keep up workouts together and push each other forward as you find your own self-motivation.

Once you’ve convinced your buddy to give it a try, there are a few things you can do to keep up the partnership and make a habit out of it. Don’t forget to:

• Be persistent about continuing to work out together (without being annoyingly pushy)
• Be consistent and reliable about your availability. It’s easier to make a habit out of things when they occur regularly.
• Make fun the top priority. Keeping things fun and positive will help motivation to come more naturally.